We just arrived at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport for a volunteer stint and, after setting up the RV, took a short tour around to see if anything was new or different since we were here in April. And indeed there was, immediately adjacent to the Florida Air Museum.
This was just added and it’s a sight. The fuselage of a Boeing 307 Stratoliner, purchased by Howard Hughes in July, 1939, was mated to the hull of a boat in the early 70s.
Read more about the evolution of this peculiar hybrid here:...

In some eighteen years of RVing with various vehicles, I’ve never had a tank refuse to give up its contents. I’ve had valves stick and valves break, but I’d never had a valve get plugged up.
We had been set up in a nice RV Park in Naples, Florida, for six days when I thought it’d be prudent to dump the black tank. I have one of those clear sections you see in the RV catalogs attached to the tank outlet, with the drain hose attached to that. The idea is so you can see the flow, especially when rinsing the waste tank.
I pulled the valve handle and saw just a little ‘stuff’ slide through the clear section, and then – nothing. I pushed the valve handle back in and then pulled it back out again. Still nothing. Oh...

A recent blowout on the right side of the 5th wheel RV trailer blasted away the plastic wheel-opening trim, and tore the lower metal panel aft of the tire. Checking with the dealer where I bought it, I learned that it would take at least a month (probably more) for them to fix it.
I thought about it for a little while, and decided to fix it myself. It would be quicker (I hoped) and undoubtedly cheaper.
I emailed photos of the damaged parts to the dealer and they agreed to have the parts loaded into the next new unit coming to them from the factory. This way, I wouldn’t have to pay crating and truck-shipping fees.
As Murphy’s Law would have it, the wrong gold-colored aluminum curved panel arrived. Reordering and waiting for another new unit...

Have you ever seen something that caught you by surprise but then realized that you actually did know about it but had just forgotten? Some might consider this a sign of age, but I prefer to think that I just need to have some more personal RAM installed…
We arrived in Cocoa Beach on Saturday, found the RV park and got set up. Next was an excursion to Publix, my go-to place in Florida, to pick up a few things. The rest of the afternoon was partially spent lolling (I like that word) in the pool. The park was not at all crowded and we had the pool to ourselves.
After nearly an hour, though, we could see approaching young children in the near distance and grabbed our shoes and towels and headed back to the RV. Not a fan of loud kids splashing everything...

We rolled down I-95 past St. Augustine, Florida, on Thursday about twelve noon and found our campground just south of there off SR 207. I had picked it out of the Passport America directory and was curious to see how the description jibed with the actual place.
As you might expect, things always look better on paper than they do in person. However, in this case, some of the sites were paved and level, a big plus for me. Unfortunately, no one was in the office when we arrived, and still not there when we returned from lunch and the outlet malls up the road at five-fifteen that evening.
So, the next morning at eight-thirty I walked over to find that someone was actually in. Turns out the site I had picked was reserved for someone else arriving Friday evening...

I got my first non-tent camping unit in 1994 – a used slide-in truck camper – and have had seven more RVs of various kinds since then, so I’ve been at this for a while. Over the years I’ve learned a thing or three about RVing, often the hard way. In the hope of keeping you from making the same mistakes, I’m periodically writing about some of my experiences.
Many towable-trailer manufacturers build units with two doors. Usually, one is near the living area and the another off a bedroom. My first brand new unit – a Rockwood – had two doors and that was quite a novelty to me.
But we nearly always used the aft door from the living area whenever we accessed the trailer because that was where we spent most of our time when on the road. However,...